KIM – to continue the catch-up – Toowoomba is a town of about 50,000 and is a Shire so it administers to an area of about 150,000. Very pretty and they have done a terrific job of preserving the older traditional Queensland buildings. Carol (one of the Brits in the group and the only other non-pilot) and I spent the afternoon wandering around, stocking up on last minute supplies for everyone and having an incredible lunch – stuffed quail – with a bottle of rose.
We finally left Toowoomba on the Wednesday but not until about 12ish. A bunch of people entertained themselves taking rides in a Tudor while waiting for all our aircraft to arrive and get sorted out. I’d have gone as well but by my turn we were ready to leave in our own planes!
The first leg was from Toowoomba to Charleville – from 50,000 to 3,500 people – we thought we were in the outback – ha!
Charleville is a service town for all the surrounding stations so relatively busy. We had a tour of the Corones Hotel – more about that later – and after dinner met a DILBY – also more about that – and went to an outdoor observatory. The skies here are unbelievable – there aren’t any light pollution problems! Saw the rings of Saturn, got close up to Mars and checked out some incredible nebula (s)?
Signing off now – going to see an Opal Mine!